Is there an alternative to JW Player

We’re somewhat alarmed to discover that we’re dependant on a long obsolete Wordpress plugin (jw-player-plugin-for-wordpress JW6) for streaming the videos which earn a very substantial part of our income.

Although it’s all working at the moment, it’s no longer supported by JW Player and thus, potentially very fragile.


Currently we use s2Member, to restrict access to the video pages and prevent viewers copying the links.


I’ve tried embedding a more up-to-date “Cloud Based” JW player via my JW account, but despite seeing the video play on the JW site, when I paste the code into an otherwise empty page which is accessible to the public, I get: “Error loading playlist: Not a valid RSS feed”.

My search for this error on JW Player’s website, led me to this page (which is completely beyond me).

As I mentioned, the file played fine on the JW site, and it plays fine on our website when embedded with our (old JW6) self-hosted player.


The very helpful support people at JW Player tell me: “Please note that we only support versions JW7 and above as of October 2017.”

But (apparently) JW7 is no longer available for self- hosting!

I wonder how many other people are in the same position?


Basically, what we need to know is:

Is there an alternative Video Player that can offer:

a. A system whereby we can stream protected video for viewing only by our paying members, or
b. A player which could be used by s2Member as JW6 is now?
c. Another way round the problem of protecting video.

Hi Andy.

You bring up great points.

You can still protect the files with s2 hosted on AWS, even if you use another player. The s2Stream shortcode works with JWPlayer, but you can use the code provided by another player you choose. E.g. https://alternativeto.net/software/jw-flv-player/?license=free

Just generate the link to the file with the s2File shortcode, or the PHP function, so it has all the needed credentials for the file to be downloaded. WP Admin > s2Member > Download Options > Shortcode Attributes & API Functions

Let me know what you try and how it goes. I’ll help as I can. :slight_smile:

The JWPlayer licensing was never friendly for commercial use without paying for it anyway. Years ago I stopped using the s2Member video player just for that reason.

The easiest out of the box for any layer of security is Vimeo Pro (needed for commercial use) using html referrer for security. It’s a lot easer than generating AWS links, but cost might be different. If you don’t host a lot of content AWS would be cheaper, but if you host a lot of content Vimeo might be cheaper.

But any semi-tech savvy user can easily rip your videos using either of these methods.

Or you can forget about any video security and use AWS cloudfront to host (non-secure links) and Video.js as a player, which is what I’ve been doing lately because I like its JavaScript API.

https://videojs.com

Even easier would be to host videos on YouTube with private links. Sure it’s even easier to share/copy, but EVERY solution can be copied if someone really wanted to.

As an example, do you really think someone would share a pdf through your link or just email or message it? Videos are a bit larger, but almost as easy to share.

My suggestion to @clavaque is to remove the file download protection entirely to focus on other, more needed, areas.

If ClickFunnels suggests to just use private YouTube links because extra security is just a waste of time or a possible inconvenience to paying users then that means something :slight_smile: Plus I just checked and the WooCommerce S3 link generator appeared on page 8, sorted by popularity.

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Thanks for your reply Ric, but with respect, I have to question your logic. We all know that a skilled thief can break into just about any car within seconds, but I wouldn’t mind betting you lock your car in public places.

I know I can’t protect video against theft by someone with good computer skills, but they’re not the sort who are likely to want to steal my videos. These people would look for more lucrative targets.

Just as the average motorist wants to prevent the petty thief from breaking into their car, I want to make it as difficult as I can for the casual ‘share’ to happen.

Over the years, I’ve found s2Member ideal for that purpose.

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I guess I just look at it differently, but there isn’t a hole in my logic.

I always think it’s funny when folks from my neighborhood FB group post videos from their security systems of their cars being broken into simply because they didn’t lock them AND they left valuables in plain sight. They paid all that money for cameras and monitoring, but didn’t take step 1 with security.

But having something stolen from your car is metaphysically different than bits and bytes being copied.

I don’t feel your analogy is relevant.

If someone steals something from my car I don’t have it anymore. If it was my wallet (probably the #1 one thing people complain was stolen from their cars in the FB posts referenced above), I’ve probably lost some cash and now have to spent lots of time getting a new ID, cancelling credit cards, etc.

But if someone copies one of my videos I still have the video in my possession AND I’m not caused any wasted time.
There’s literally no real effect.

I really didn’t lose anything except possibly some intellectual property (but let’s face it, most every topic has free information about it online so there’s usually not much IP in most paid content). What most of us are selling is time so our customers don’t have to gather all the content themselves.

You’re right that those with skills are going to steal anyway and then either refund (ouch) or share online or do both! And if they are sharing it on Black Hat forum sites, etc. you really can’t look at it as a bunch of money lost because none of the people looking for free content on those sites would have paid you anything AND they are not the types of customers you probably want to serve anyway.

So we’re talking about average customers.

At one point I did want all the security I could get for my videos, especially since I have IT security certifications and was a college faculty reviewer for a security textbook.

I totally get what you’re saying.

But for me, I felt that I was treating my average customers like they (or a sub group of them) were thieves and, at least back then, it caused some technical issues for people that weren’t trying to steal anything.

And the ones that did try to copy were just probably doing it to have longer access time to the content or wanted to share with a friend or family member. Personally I don’t mind either of these.

I look at it like people loaning Blu-Rays to each other AND some free marketing. Sure I don’t make any money off of THAT view of my content, but what about the next? If my course was good it’s possible that both will buy my next product. Or they might both chip in together when I release a premium priced product. Or they might not. IDK, but I’m not going to stress about it.

And with that all said, I personally had a mental shift when I took away the security and accepted that some of my average customers were going to share AND the black hat tech-savvy ones would totally do what they do no matter what I did.

My view towards my regular customers changed since I wasn’t thinking they were going to steal from me AND if my stuff got shared on black hat sites it just meant I made great content and it’s kind of an odd compliment.

So that’s why I DO lock my car doors but I only put minimal (http header) or no security on my videos.

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We have our videos hosted at Vimeo and accessible via S2 shortcodes. Vimeo is setup to only allow our URL to stream video. For playing the video, we been using WP Lightbox Ultimate, which has worked great for the last 3 years.
Could someone steal our stuff? No doubt, but not your average user…

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Thanks for your help, Cristián. I hadn’t realised that you could use different players, indeed, s2Member only refers to JW Player in its options (as far as I know).

However, I used the link you provided, and after studying the various players, decided to give FV Player a try!

I’m stunned! FV Player absolutely blows JW Player out of the water!
It has vastly more options, is dead easy to use, and configuring it to access Amazon S3 (directly) is a joy.

Playlists, Subtitles, Fallback for poorer connections - all there, and so simple to configure.

Now I look forward to continued protection via s2Member and the actual video being delivered and protected with FV Player by Foliovision.

Important factors for me are that FV Player was last updated two weeks ago, and its Wordpress features prominently on the home page of the website. (Try finding Wordpress on JW Player’s site).

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Just for information, I have been using s2M since I opened my sites 8 years ago, and what I started with (then) was using Easy Video Suite (it was called Easy Video Player back then, and it updated to EVS). It uploads to AmazonS3, and then, the videos can be embedded in any page or post.

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